Journalist Jackie Levy announced over the weekend that after more than 15 years, he left the newspaper 'Israel Hayom'.
In a post he published on the social network Facebook, Levy wrote: "For a month now, many have been contacting me and asking why. When I say 'many,' I mean close friends as well as complete strangers on the street, and when I say many, I mean seriously. Not like the politicians who complain about the 'masses demanding they run for prime minister,' when in fact it's their mother, or someone who has their eye on their current job.".
""Those many who approach me, on the street or through the conventional networks, and ask why, mean that my column stopped appearing in the weekend's 'Israel Hayom.' I would say that some of them approach me with resentment, with the subtext being: Stop now? Why are you indulging us now and taking up time?".
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""At first I avoided it," he said, "but from one request to another, and since I'm a bit difficult to grasp, the understanding gradually took shape that all these good people think that it was me who decided to stop writing the column 'Ba Betov' that appeared in the 'Shishabt' supplement for nearly 16 years.
""So no. I would prefer to say it came from me. But that's not true. It's a decision by the newspaper. A decision that no one bothered to explain to me, and that I don't really understand. I didn't get tired and the column didn't get tired either. The number of readers is only increasing. The responses are nice, and interceptions from the poison machine are proof that you're on the right side. Personally, many members of the newspaper have expressed sorrow and surprise to me. They don't understand either. So it seems that a decision of the irrelevant kind was made here.".
When asked if this bothered him, he replied: "It bothers me. Really. I loved writing the column, I loved interacting with readers, and honestly, writing weekly has become part of my identity. Is it worth fighting for? To bother and find out who the man was who was so important to me that I no longer write for the newspaper? And not only that, but the newspaper won't even say a word of farewell in the last issue in which I said goodbye? I don't know.".
""Do I enjoy writing this confession? Well, an ancient and connoisseur Jewish image says 'like hemorrhoids'... But in all my years as a columnist and publicist - 32 years, if you count - I have made sure to write the truth to the best of my understanding. It's not for the sake of it that I start bluffing now.".
